Gambit for 2012 NY Comic Con

Ok so i have decided to do Gambit for NY Comic Con and had a few questions.
1. Whats the best way to do the red muscle shirt since im a normal person and not a body builder?
2. Whats the best way to make the boots, I was thinking of doing a thin craft foam over top of some old boots, or maybe some craft foam or a thick cloth material covered in silver or blue (not shure which version im gonna do yet)
3. for the upper chest part is it a part of the shirt or like a mantle? Ive seen pics which seem both ways?

This is actually a costume that I plan on gender-bending at some point, so I can offer whatever ideas I've had. Maybe I can get some new ideas from here, too.

For the shirt, I would personally just go with maroon and black active wear. I've always hated the way fake muscles look, or when fabric is painted to look like muscles. Go with the active wear and I think you'll be safe.

For the boots, I was planning on wearing knee-high boots with shin-guards over them, painted to look metallic. I've got plans to modify the shin-guards so there's some detailed craft foam going over the knee. Again, painted to look metallic. The idea is to give the illusion of armor. Or just give the illusion of punk boots. Either method is totally valid, and totally Gambit.

The upper chest piece is a tricky one. My plan was to make a turtle neck tank top for the shirt, then use spandex, craft foam, or leather to spirit gum to my face. I doubt making a rigid structure would work very well, and there really isn't a good way to go about getting that look.

I hope this helps a bit. I'll be the first to admit that my ideas may not be the best to take, but it's a starting point, if nothing else.

Boots - Funtasma captain 100, already available in silver. May upgrade them with metallic rings/coils look Gambit has (not sure how to do that right now, haha).

Knee pads - just typical military style knee pads, painted them silver to match. Ideally, I would like to go back and add the triangle on them.

Chest piece - I got lucky and found a leather chest plate armor (probably used for LARPing). Spray painted it pink. Made the neck collar thing out of craft foam for the blue base, then used latex tubing with insulated metal wires on the inside (so I can bend it to a shape I want) for the silver details on the edges.

I'm working on the current Gambit look, so it's a little different but it might provide for some jumping off points.

Chest armor -- I found a nice, lightweight paintball chest piece. Looks good. It's black that I'll be adding purple mesh fabric to the side of. You might be able to do some similar and sew pink over the body and in the middle to help show off the "armor" bits. ne0ven0m's way of doing his chest peice is also fantastic and looks great. I like what CelticRuins did, too. If you can't mold, just going for a plain pink/magenta shirt and black Under Armor works well, too.

Boots -- I found some inexpensive, used motorcross boots that have that armor look to it. If you're putting shinguards over the boots you can get away with other styles.

Knees/shins -- Like the boots I found some black motorcross shinguards that look fantastic. You can probably do the same and paint it silver. Foam works, too, if you don't want to wear hard plastic all day.

Scour ebay. Ebay has been my best friend when finding pieces I can use with little to no alteration. Hope this helps at least a little.